Soldier Son #1. Author: Robin Hobb. Summary: Nevare Burvelle was destined from birth to be a soldier. The second son of a newly anointed nobleman, he must endure the rigors of military training at the elite King’s Cavalla Academy–and survive the hatred, cruelty, and derision of his aristocratic classmates–before joining the King of Gernia’s brutal campaign of territorial expansion. The life chosen for him will be fraught with hardship, for he must ultimately face a forest-dwelling folk who will not submit easily to a king’s tyranny. And they possess an ancient magic their would-be conquerors have long discounted–a powerful sorcery that threatens to claim Nevare Burvelle’s soul and devastate his world once the Dark Evening brings the carnival to Old Thares. (Summary from Goodreads.) My Thoughts: Shaman’s Crossing started out as an interesting, slow coming-of-age story. Somehow, it managed to embody both the noble savage and the dirty savage tropes in the same tribes, which seemed something of an achievement. The straight forward coming-of-age story thread remained solidly interesting, as the main character advances through a military academy, making friends and enemies, and struggling to reach high standards. But the magic plot line just got stranger and stranger as it…